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Treaty Song Lyrics by Joanne Shenandoah

It seems to be that kind of a day, past, present and possible future meeting at the apex of the three-sided pyramid that is my life and little of it any of what one could call good. I think the following lyrics express much of what I’ve been reading today. We don’t want “fake news”? Then this isn’t.

Treaty song – Joanne Shenandoah

When you’ve razed all the forests… silenced all the birds

Destroyed creation that came before your words

When you’ve stamped to the ground all the things you fear

One thing to be sure of… I’ll still be here

Remember the treaty you have made with me

As long as grass grows and the sky is blue and rivers run free

Does this not mean forever?

Or did we not agree?

Will lies and broken promises be your legacy?

Who am I your Honour?

Who am I your Grace?

Who do you see standing here as you look upon my face?

Hear me Mr President…

This is Sacred Ground

You cannot own my Spirit, though you might lay me down

So take all your children… teach them your lies

Why waters are polluted… smog fills the skies

You can drain all the oceans and fill them with tears

You will never remove me…

I’ll always be here

So when you seat your Council, who will come to speak

For the Buffalo, the Eagle, the forest and the trees

The oceans and their bounty are all here nearby

And for all the children standing at our side

(Repeating refrain omitted)

Facts: Over 100 million Native American people were genocided in the “conquest” and western expansion by white Americans.

Facts: British traders transported an estimated 3.4 million Africans to North America as slaves during the 245 years the transatlantic slave trade was active.

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8 thoughts on “Treaty Song Lyrics by Joanne Shenandoah”

It is just such an incomprehensible loss when a culture is extincted, and an entire way of seeing the world and life becomes theoretical instead of actual, embodies in living people. Years ago I drove with a friend thru the reservations in southern Arizona and it was heartbreaking… mature men lying on the bare ground dazed and asleep in mid afternoon because the previous night was their monthly govt check and it was spent on alcohol. Our karmic debt seems close to irredeemable in things like this. But I read something fascinating a few years ago and it gave me pause. It was an observation/claim made by an ‘initiate’ who could read off the truth from the sky. This claim is now over a century old. He said the great bulk (not 100%, but the majority) of present Europeans, especially western Europeans, had their most recent earth life in the North American frontiers as members of Amerindian cultures. And again, that the vast majority of present American lives are in fact reincarnations of ones who previously lived in Asia, in the far East. If true this reveals an inkling a to how wise cosmic process and law is, compared to our feeble proud declarations as to what is what.

That is an interesting claim, indeed. It would “back up” the claim by my “Teachers” that those who die remaining unawakened to the realities, and responsibilities attendant to this life leading to preparation for the next creates this vast pool of zombies who are then reassigned another life and given no clue as to what’s in store for them or why they find themselves where they are, doing the things they do until their history begins to show them that they are spinning a great big wheel. Some of us have clued in and are no longer subject to this herd mentality programming so we not only see the “numbers” presented by history but we see the connections, the complicity, but also the machinery put in place to prevent the unawakened from cheating and escaping their… karma. At least based on that we can sense that a dead-beat species like mankind (Earthians as the Teachers call them) is not going to escape from its self imposed nightmare and go polluting other worlds. So I read it anyway.